Guest Justin Posted November 9, 2001 Share Posted November 9, 2001 Fixed my previous problem by playing around with the timing and idle screws (or at the very least made a significant improvement). Unfortunately, now that my attention isn't focused on the smoke coming out of the carb on shutdown, I've noticed smoke coming out of the breather while letting the engine run... So I guess my questions are what causes this, and how do I correct it.. and please, for the love of God, do NOT tell me it's caused by gas getting past the rings into the oil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 10, 2001 Share Posted November 10, 2001 Its called blow-by, and sorry to tell you this, it is a by product of combustion getting by the rings into the crankcase and exiting through the valve cover. A little bit on a motor with quite a few miles on it is pretty common. Its usually sucked into the intake via the PCV valve which helps to vent the crank from all the air produced as the pistons come down and the crank assembly turns, all that reciprocating assembly stirs up alot of air down there. Try a compression check, and then squirt a bit of oil in the cyl and try the check again, if it comes up significantly, you can assume you may need to look into rebuilding it. You can have a shop do this, they have a meter telling what the % of leak down is. Thats my take on it anyway, maybe someone else can tell you something simple that would cause it, but my gut feeling and opinion is its the rings. I'm sure you'll get a second opinion on this. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 10, 2001 Share Posted November 10, 2001 Lone is right. Look at it this way: for every cc or cubic inch above the pistons there is an equal displacement BELOW the pistons as well. Make sure the pcv is functioning properly and add a crankcase breather to a valve cover and see if it helps. There is nothing wrong with a pcv valve yet I see at least one car a week that isn't ventilating it's crakncase properly and it causes headaches and oily messes usually. Rattle your pcv around, it should make noise. If not get a new one, they are cheap and easily replaced. And yes, old motors usually smoke for the reasons Lone stressed earlier. Try a product next time you change you oil called B-12 Chemtool. Pour half the contents into the VALVECOVER (YES, THAT'S RIGHT) and the other half into a full tank of gas. Let the engine idle fast until it reaches operating temp(this vaporizes the chemtool). This will clean out the inside of your motor and hopefully free up sticky rings and loosen up sludge inside also. Drain oil once it cools and replace filter. Add one quart of Rislone oil treatment( it is a super duty detergent oil basically) that will help keep rings free. Add 4 quarts of you favorite oil and be on your way. I bought a 1994 Dodge Ram that ate a quart+ of oil every oil change. After the above procedure was performed several times the truck no longer eats ANY oil between changes. This is real truth from a guy not wanting to sell you anything! Give it a try, you can find these products at most parts places such as Kragen, Schucks, NAPA, etc,,, good luck my friend!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RXO510 Posted November 10, 2001 Share Posted November 10, 2001 Hi LongRod327, Just saw the replied posts on this subject. Well we were wondering if the method you suggested can be done as a preventative maintenance on the engine or is this just for engines that seem to need attention. Sounds like it worked great for you. Or is just maintaining the engine with oil changes and scheduled tune ups the way to go? Just want to keep our engine in good shape. There are so many additives for engines nowadays. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 10, 2001 Share Posted November 10, 2001 I hear you on the bad PCV valves, I bought one brand new that was a major source of a vacuum leak. It shook like it was freed up, but nope, leaked badly car idled like crap. I'm pretty sure it was from Fram to, I expected more of them. Oh well... Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Justin Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Weeelll... the car doesn't have a pcv valve, just a breather on the passenger side valve cover. Also, the motor only has about 5,000 miles on it, but the crank got to play soccer with the tip of the dipstick for an unknown number of miles after it broke off. So would installing a pcv valve get rid of the smoke, or at least a good portion of it? In any case, I'll be doing a compression test just to see where the motor's at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Only 5000 miles? Hmmm, I would imagine that part of the dipstick went to the bottom of the pan. Did you just notice it, at 5000 it obviously should'nt be smoking unless the ring(s) didn't seat right. (Or that was a rough 5000 miles... ). Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Justin Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Just noticed it when I got the car back here after I bought it... dropped the oil pan and took all the pieces (yes, plural ) out before I fired it up again. It's a crate motor so I'd assume it was assembled correctly. There's no blue smoke to speak of in the exhaust. The previous owner had it for the first 4,500 miles or so. If the rings are bad I'd assume it was either improperly broken in, or the bits of dipstick being kicked around either chewed up the rings, scored the cylinder walls, or both. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Get a PCV on that thing and see if that fixes it or not. I will bet you it will get rid of most of the smoke you are talking about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 12, 2001 Share Posted November 12, 2001 Well the PCV won't get rid of it IMHO, but it will at least send it back to the intake for recombustion in the cylinder. If its not alot of smoke (a little puffing isn't super uncommon in low mileage engines, I had a brand new beetle from the factory that ate a quart between oil changes and that was considered 'normal' for them according to Vw.) and the compression seems the same across the cylinders and its not smoking blue smoke out the back, I'd put a pcv valve in (just to get rid of the smoke out of the breather and engine compartment), and go for it. I'd monitor its oil usage and see how bad it is. But I wouldn't worry terribly about it. Sorry to scare you earlier, but I didn't know the mileage was that low or how bad its doing it. Besides if anything is REALLY wrong, it'll let you know.. Regards, Lone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Anonymous Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 RXO510: You can perform the procedure at every oil change to keep everything top noch clean. The Rislone keeps it clean and the Chemtool deep cleans and breaks loose sludge and heat built up residues to get rid of them and vaporize small particles. I suggest the combo at oil change time, everytime. Thanks for the question and good luck on future endeavors... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest RXO510 Posted November 13, 2001 Share Posted November 13, 2001 Thanks for the tip and the information. We're going to do an oil change tuesday and will be performing that maintenance procedure. Thanks for letting us know. Appreciate it. J&G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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